AMD Opteron X-Series APUs running Fedora Linux are an important development for companies looking to transition to x86 APU servers but who don't want to introduce new tools and software platforms into the IT environments.

AMD has released a range of quad-core, 8-core, 12-core and 16-core processors featuring its second-generation 'Piledriver' modular core architecture which are designed as a drop-in replacement for 'Bulldozer' Opteron parts.

In a market dominated by powerful, but power-hungry, Intel Xeon and AMD Opteron processors, SeaMicro is bucking the trend in using the humble Intel Atom to create highly scalable and remarkably energy-efficient servers.Its first product, the 32-bit SM10000, was launched last year, and now there's a 64-bit version, cramming 256 dual-core N570 Atom processors into a 10U rack unit.